Poster Case Study: Red Lights

"Red Lights" is the poster that I am focusing on because it represents similar ideas to what I want to create. I want a single close up of one the main characters in the film showing an emotionless facial expressing and tagline over or around the face. Similar to the lighting in the Red Lights poster, I want to create a Lowery lighting shoot with the use of chiaroscuro which will create uneasiness and suspicion amongst the audience who will view the poster. Just like this poster, I will use dark colours to convey the psychological thriller genre that my film is which is a convention of physiological thrillers. Moreover, the minimalist approach is also what I intend to do as I believe less is more and leaves the audience on a cliffhanger and eager to find out more.. 

Genre: Poster Collage

Masthead Ideas

Headline Ideas

Case Study: Director of Film Genre

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy ...           

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Executive producer
1992	Alien 3	Yes
1995	Seven	Yes
1997	The Game	Yes
1999	Fight Club	Yes
2001	The Hire (Short films)		Yes
2002	Panic Room	Yes
2005	Lords of Dogtown			Yes
2006	Love and Other Disasters		Yes
2007	Zodiac	Yes
2008	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Yes
2010	The Social Network	Yes
2011	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Yes
2014	Gone Girl	Yes		Yes

SE7EN Poster Analysis

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SE7EN Trailer Analysis

• The trailer begins with mid shots of 2 male characters in action. This can be seen as an introduction of the two suggesting that they work together. The use of quick cuts to focus on different objects, such as a body, an open window and a glass links to the genre of the film which is psychological thriller and crime fiction.   

• Low-key lighting is used in scenes when the detectives are at work, This emphasises the mystery and gloominess of their jobs, This contrasts with the high-key lighting used in the detectives house and this may show that the seriousness and darkness of their jobs are left on the doorstep and within their household is where their happiness is maintained.

• The weather in the trailer is constantly rainy and cloudy; this creates a dull and gloomy atmosphere. 

• Throughout the trailer, there are props used that are associated with the crime genre, these are guns and torches. Lose ups of these props could represent the violence that may take place within the film. There has also been a use of blue infrared lights, which are usually used in investigations. In one scene of the trailer the infrared light reveals the words ‘Help me’. This is intriguing for the audience and keeps them engaged.

• A voice over has been used throughout the trailer. The voice over begins by describing one detective as ‘looking for a way out’ and the other as ‘looking for a way in’, then sums them both up as ‘caught in a game’. This suggests that they are in some kind of trouble.

• The trailer contains many onomatopoeic sound transitions between clips; this gets the audience jumping and generally makes the trailer more exciting. The non-diegetic sound gets faster as we get to the end of the trailer; this creates excitement for the audience.

• The voice over states the names of the characters, this could be used to attract the audience.

• The use of inter-titles is effective. The inter-tiles state a number of words such as sloth, greed, pride and lust. The colour of the font is red, which is associated with danger and blood, this could signify what is going to be in the film.

Planning Ideas / Flat Plan Ideas

Masthead

"Feature" is the name of the magazine, it is a word often associated with movies and films. Also, it relates to actors and performances.

Headline

"Vengeance" is the headline which is also the film title. It allows the readers to know the title of the name and also gives them idea of the overall plot of the entire film without leaving them guessing.
Main Image
The main image will feature the main family within the film giving direct contact to the camera with a gloomy facial expression
Slogan
"The best, by the best"
Colour Scheme
Red, black, grey, white
Sell Lines
"Worst films of 2016"
"Meet the people behind the camera"
"Movie mistakes"
"Directors cut"
"Awards"
"Interview with"
Initial Ideas
Initially, I wanted a grey-scale magazine front cover, with a minimalist approach. I wanted at least 4 characters within the front page so it was a sort of "meet the family" feel and allowed the audience to know who would feature in the film, linking to the magazine name. It would be a mid-shot within a home scenery.

  

Front Cover Ideas - Masthead and Film Title

The masthead of my movie magazine will be "Feature". I will name it feature because feature links to film because films feature characters and many things within them. Also, when mentioning actors within films, it is typically said featuring followed by the actor so the words feature will have similar ties with film and will be recognisable by movie watchers. It will be placed on top of the magazine which will be clear for the audience to see and acknowledge.

The film name "Vengeance" which means getting revenge on someone who did you wrong doing - will be across the centre of the film also in capital, bold and clear colours. This will allow the audience to know what the film is.

Front Magazine Cover Collage

Looking at a common trend within the front magazine covers, I have discovered that the main conventions are:

• One main protagonist
• The film name across the magazine
• Sell lines relating to the film
• A slogan
• Exclusives/ Competitions
• Interviews
• Freebies 

The Gift Posters Analysis

The Gift Trailer Analysis

• The use of cinematography, mise-en--secne, sound and editing in this trailer gives the movie a sinister mood to it. This is highly effective for a film because the conventions fits the genre psychological thriller so its easy to establish and draws fans of psychological thrillers in to the film.
• The first shot from The Gift trailer is a close up of a ribbon which audiences would automatically link to a present. This connotes that the present is significant in the film and is the root of the story-line. It is also unexpected for something as friendly as a gift to turn out to be something with a dark twist to it making the story-line unpredictable.
• The colour of the ribbon is red meaning danger which is one of the signs that something (being the gift) could be dangerous 
• The volume of the music in the background changes overtime which could increase and decrease tension and link to the change in the story-line. this is an effective way of keeping audiences interested in because its not a typical thriller movie.
• At the beginning of the trailer, the music is calm and slow until the story picks up, then weird sounds are played in the background increasing tension which some would find disturbing but still watch since its a physiological thriller.
• As the story-line becomes more intense, the inter-titles comes in saying"From Blumhouse the producer of insidious" which could be a caution sign that this could also be a scary movie just like Insidious. 

• The characters repeat phrases like "let bygones by bygones" that could have a double message behind it which people would have to watch the whole movie to know what its about. This is another way of keeping audiences intrigued.
• The use of jumpy, fast pace editing when the actors are moving makes the scenes look distorted and unusual.
• The movie being set in the winter means that mostly muted colours are seen. This is an effective way of setting the eerie atmosphere and is a typical convention used in thriller movies.

The Girl on the Train Trailer Analysis

How does “The girl on the train” use the formalistic conventions of film trailer effectively?

The trailer showed the distributors of the film Universal in the opening of the film, this is a formalist convention and is typically done because certain target audiences may enjoy particular films produced by certain film distributors – this could see an increase in sales for the particular film and increase the net growth. Also, it could give indication of how the film will be.



Also, the music in the background being Kanye West – Heartless may have some link to the overall idea of the film and give connotations that that the film may have a heartless presence running through the entire film or that it may have a surprising ending of some sort etc – this could raise potential film goers suspicions and encourage them to watch the film.



Moreover, the inter-titles that appear “At 4:36” “A woman disappeared” were effectively used as they almost create a sense of worry and panic and makes the watchers very puzzled to find out what exactly happened and more about the film – we want to know what exactly what happened and we can only achieve this by watch the film and finding out.



I also believe the mise-en-scene was effectively used as it added to the tension and curiosity it intended to build within the trailer – for example, the crime scene used in the forest to show that someone had died was effective because we have all the more reason to add to our questioning of what happened in the actual film.